EXPLORING CULTURES: CANADA?
It’s that place with all mountains and stick men. There are forests and mountains and a lake and a river.
There’s a dog, down at the bottom. That’s the sun and those swirly shapes are just decorations. The people are holding spears. Where’s that country?

Boy: I don’t know. We had to say what we liked doing best from the year. I put, “I liked the cooking”.

Mum: Ah – because you’re all leaving the class in a couple of weeks and will be going to your next one in September?

Boy: Yes. I really want Mrs C back.

Mum: What does Mrs C do?

Boy: She helps the teacher in the classroom. She works REALLY hard. She does really lovely work. She’s been there since it was built – on the FIRST day, when it opened, she was there and she went in and started working. She doesn’t even take breaks! If she was THROWN out and told to go away – she would just go back in and work. Once, she was told to go away for a break, and she didn’t!

Mum: Mrs C sounds like she likes her work. What work does she do?

Boy: I don’t know, she’s always too busy working and we’re always too busy learning… I know she cuts out lots of pictures.

Mum: Why does she cut out pictures – for the class to use?

Boy: No, she just cuts them out all the time. I don’t know what she uses them for. Mysterious…

THE CRAZY ONE
It’s Forest School! There’s one tree that’s CRAZY in Forest School – that’s the crazy tree [left]. They’re just normal trees [left], that brown’s the bark on the floor and there’s the blue sky above.
Age 5

Mum: It’s called iTunesU. It’s where you can get books and information into the phone.

Son: No, what’s it a picture of?

Mum: It’s a hat. It’s called a ‘mortar board‘. It’s what people wear when they graduate from University. It’s our Graduation Day today! There will be lots of people at my work wearing funny hats!

Son: What’s ‘Graduation Day’?

Mum: It’s a day when we celebrate that people have finished their courses.

Son: What’s a ‘course’?

Mum: It’s when people decide to learn about certain things, and gather lots of information. Then they write about what they’ve learned in books and things. And today we’re celebrating because they’ve learned what they wanted to learn to make them better at doing things. Some of them will get prizes too for doing really well at certain things.

Son: What prizes will they get?

Mum: I’m not sure.

Son: How many people is there?

Mum: I think there are about 20 in our part of the day.

Son: Well… [looks around] You can give them some of my shells from Crete. I’ll give you three and you’ll have to find something else at your work for the rest of the people.

Like this:

D: We had a new man come into our class today. He was the story man – he read us stories.

Me: Did he? Who was that then? Was it someone’s dad?

D: I can’t remember his name. I don’t know if it was someone’s dad.

Me: Was it good?

D: Yes!

Me: Did he just read stories to your class?

D: No, he read to the whole school.

Me: In the hall?

D: No, he went to all the classrooms.

Me: Wow, that must have taken him a long time. Did he read the same stories to all the classes?

D: I don’t know… Yes! He did, because he said in another class he asked what you should do with babies and a boy said, “Put them in the bin!” And he said, “That’s wrong isn’t it? You don’t put babies in the bin!”

Me: He talked to me at the end when we had snack time – I said “You’re funny!” and he said “Thank you. You’re funny too.” Then I said “Thank you. you’re funny!” Then he said “You’re funny!” And I said “You’re funny!” Then “You’re funny!” And “You’re funny!” And I left to go out for break time before he could say anything. Then he walked past me later in the playground and said “You’re funny!”

D: He thought he was the only one who mattered and he pushed people over if they were too slow or if they were in his way. He was a very mean person at the start, then he learnt a lesson, then he became good.

Me: How did learn his lesson?

D: He went to the land of giants – they were goody giants, not baddy giants, and he had a huge massive bottle of water and he could only drink a teeny bit of water. And the other giants tricked him because it was sea water. Then they had a huge race and Thor was left behind, even though he was so fast. The others tricked him with a giant – it was lightening, it was real flash Lightening! So Lightening won the race. And also they had a food race, and whoever ate the fastest and best the other person won. But they tricked him – it wasn’t a giant, it was FIRE! And there was a granny, and Thor had to try and beat the granny, but before he knew it he was flat on the floor, because the granny won, but I don’t know what the granny was.